The first great blossoming of literature in continental Europe, both in Latin and German, dates from the time of Charlemagne around 800. Charlemagne himself was at the center of this activity and assembled a following of distinguished scholars and poets at his court from home and abroad. Not the least distinguished of these was the, in all probability Spanish, poet and theologian Theodulf, bishop and then archbishop in Orléans. His collection of some seventy poems is remarkable for its energy, diversity, and visualization of Carolingian court life. Until now the poems have been available only in an unpublished prose translation in a Tulane dissertation by Nikolai A. Alexandrenko (1971). The present version attempts to make the poems available to a general audience in a readable form that echoes to whatever extent possible Theodulf’s original distichs.

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